At the red table: how intergenerational Black women are using Facebook Watch to cultivate critical conversations on health, identity, and relationships

ABSTRACT

Red Table Talk, a web series exclusively aired on Facebook Watch, represents the narrative of intergenerational Black women who tackle critical conversations. The show, developed by Jada Pinkett-Smith and featuring her daughter and mother, brings in special guests for discussions on race, gender identity, sexual and mental health, co-parenting, and relationships. This paper relies on both qualitative and quantitative data from an audience survey, supplemented by thematic analysis to explore these themes. We show how the alternative media model of Facebook Watch and the series itself act as rebellions against institutionalized narratives that perpetuate stereotypes against people of color. We examine how Black women creators reclaim agency and resist generational forms of silencing by authoring a counter-narrative at the intersection of their lived cultural experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• critical race theory
• media
• intersectionality
• Facebook

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jennifer Sadler

Jennifer Sadler is an Assistant Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, and lead of the marketing program at Columbia College Chicago in Chicago, IL. Her research focuses on the application of critical race theory in mass media and marketing strategy, with a pedagogical emphasis on eradicating practices that reinforce assumptions about people of color. Sadler leads a team that developed CiteBlackAuthors.com, a database of Black scholarly citations that aims to amplify Black academic voices in research.

Chantell LaPan

Chantell LaPan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Hospitality, and Tourism at UNC Greensboro. Her research focuses on rural tourism development, with a particular interest in agritourism, microentrepreneurship, and issues of social justice, including gender, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic class.